Hlas: All are happy at Iowa, ISU ... for now

If we know anything about Iowa-Iowa State Week, it's that we seldom know anything.

The underdog (Iowa State each time) won three of the last four meetings, and the Cyclones were 13-point dogs going into their 20-17 win in Iowa City last year.

If you knew nothing about the season-openers for Iowa and ISU but their scores, you'd probably assume the Hawkeyes and Cyclones had similar experiences. Iowa beat FCS power Illinois State, 31-14. Iowa State stopped FCS power Northern Iowa, 31-7.

But the Hawkeyes manhandled the Redbirds from the start, racking up a 268-36 advantage in first-half yardage. Iowa went on to build a 31-0 lead before allowing two touchdowns in the game's final six minutes.

The Cyclones wheezed through a lot of the first half, falling behind 7-0 before scoring twice for a 10-7 halftime lead. Then they owned the second half.

Just looking at the stats, though, you'd question how this thing was 31-7. ISU gained 310 yards to UNI's 302. UNI had the ball for 6:20 more than ISU. Both had two turnovers.

But here's the kicker, or rather, the kick-returner: Iowa State averaged 24.2 yards on its eight punt returns, including one walk-on backup Trever Ryan returned 81 yards for a touchdown to salt the game away in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore wide receiver Allen Lazard, who also had a 13-yard TD on a sweet pass from Sam B. Richardson, returned four Panther punts for a total of 100 yards.

That's called game-changing. Of all the teams in the nation that returned more than three punts Saturday, only Maryland had a better average.

In case you didn't hear, the Terrapins' Will Likely broke the 75-year-old Big Ten record of Iowa's Nile Kinnick by amassing 233 yards of punt returns in a game. As if Likely returning an interception for a score against the Hawkeyes last year wasn't enough reason for Iowa fans to dislike him.

But back to the present. Any kind of a win is a good win for Iowa State after going 5-19 over the previous two seasons and opening each of them with losses to FCS clubs. Saturday's result has to feel fantastic. UNI isn't chopped liver and ISU's much-maligned defense got six quarterback sacks.

Richardson played just as well as Iowa's C.J. Beathard did several hours earlier, hitting on 21 of 29 passes for 233 yards and two TDs. He's a fifth-year senior, and his second-half play last year was a major reason the Cyclones defeated Iowa.

But Iowa's performance Saturday was just as uplifting for its program as the Cyclones' was for theirs.

The gnashing of teeth about Iowa's new starters at offensive tackle was loud enough to frighten the young children at the Aug. 15 Kids Day scrimmage at Kinnick Stadium.

But left tackle Boone Myers will seldom, if ever, contend with a reasonable facsimile of right end Drew Ott on game days. Iowa's O-line is sack-free through one game, and its run-blocking was formidable against what typically is an excellent rushing team.

Ott, meanwhile, is headed for folk-hero status if he continues disrupting offenses the way he did against the Redbirds. The passion he shows on the field only adds to the attention he gets.

'It's always fun when you're winning,” Ott said.

It was fun for everyone at Iowa and Iowa State in Week 1. Now they approach what you can call a College Football Playoff elimination game.

You can't do it with a straight face, but you can still do it.

Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com